?/ 



^^ 




F 381 
Copy 1 



of 







Vi-**sf*-=^^n.,„:*v.- .-,^,. ,^. 



I 



HEPRINT FHOM 



THE UNIVERSITY RECORD 

OCTOBER, 1899 




• 



~1 




THE AKCHIVES OF BEXAR. 

[The following description o£ these papers was published in substance in 
the San Antonio Express, September 2'i, 189s. ] 

By vote of the Commissioners' Court of Bexar county, the Uni- 
versity of Texas has just come into possession of one of the great 
historical treasures of the American continent. This large collection 
of documents, almost all in manuscript, is popularly known as the 
Spanish archives ; but the oificial title which it bore while Texas was 
a part of the Eepublie of Mexico was the Archives of Bexar. The 
term Bexar, when used in this connection, has reference to the 
Department of Bexar, which extended over nearly all of the present 
State of Texas. 

The collection is a very large one ; 300,000 pages would be a low 
estimate, and perhaps 400,000 would not far exceed the truth. 
About one-fourth of the documents are written on foolscap paper, 
and the remainder on paper half that size, all with a very wide 
margin. The penmanship in most cases is good and easily legible; 
often it is beautifully regular, and in certain letters and reports 
written between 1780 and 1800 it approaches the perfect clearness 
of engraving. The oldest document that has come under my notice 
bears the date 1734, though very probably there are others of earlier 
date; the last papers are those which contain the correspondence of 
General Cos, and were written in the latter half of 1834 and extend 
to November, 1835. 

The Spanish occupation of Texas is inseparably connected with 
the French occupation of Louisiana. The founding of the missions 
around Naeogdoches and San Antonio is but a chapter in the history 
of the conflict between France and Spain for the possession of the 
country west of the Red river. Spain's first attempt at occupation, 
which was occasioned by the landing of the French LaSalle on the 
shores of Matagorda Bay, proved a complete failure, and iu a few 
years Texas was again an uncivilized wilderness. Then Louisiana 
fell under the control of a commercial company that was more inter- 
ested in opening a contraband trade with Mexico than in defending 
its sovereign's title to the vast wilderness to the west; under the 
auspices of this company, another Frenchman, whom we know in 



Texas history as Saint-Denis, aroused Spanish jealousy by pene- 
trating the forbidden country. But he told such tales of the willing- 
ness of the French to yield the disputed territory, and of their desire 
to open trade with Mexico, that the Spanish authorities resolved to 
seize the opportunity to take possession ; and thus it was that, under 
the guidance of Saint-Denis, and with the tacit consent of his supe- 
riors in Louisiana, the missions and forts around Nacogdoches and 
San Antonio came into existence during the years immediately fol- 
lowing 1716. This was the beginning of the permanent occupation 
of Texas. 

The French soon became hostile again, and from this time to 1763 
the theme of greatest interest in Texas history is the attempt of 
the French to drive out the Spanish, and, on the other hand, the 
persevering endeavors of the Spanish to hold the country by civil- 
izing and Christianizing the native tribes. Such was the political 
and humanitarian use made of the missions. 

A frontier settlement which joined an unfriendly neighbor needed 
a government of its own, so in 1737 Texas was constituted a separate 
province. San Antonio was made its capital, and, but for one or 
two brief intervals, remained so until Texas became a Republic. All 
the official business of the few settlements was managed by the gov- 
ernor of the province, who was also military commandant, and thus 
began the accumulation of papers which we now call the Archives 
of Bexar. 

When Mexico gained its independence the province of Tex:is be- 
came the Department of Bexar, which still included nearly all the 
territory of the present State, and was at that time one of the 
administrative units of the State of Coahuila and Texas. The she 
of this department was not diminished until a very few years before 
our revolution, the district of Nacogdoches being set off in 1831 and 
that of Brazos in 1834. So we can say with a near approach to the 
truth that all the business of government relative to Texas between 
the dates 1727 and 1835 was carried on from San Antonio, and is 
recorded in these papers. 

The capital of Mexican Texas was never permanently removed 
from San Antonio, and as the capital of American Texas was never 
located there, the collection did not become a part of the archives 
of the Eepublic, and so was allowed to pass into the possession of 
the county of Bexar. 

Gift 
American Hlptorlcal Review 

?KB 2 6 1925 



It would be an endless task, even if one possessed the informa- 
tion, to enumerate the events and subjects mentioned in these papers. 
Here reposes the history of Texas to 1835, — the complete story of 
the rise, rule and fall of the Spanish power between the Sabine and 
the Eio Grande; the voluminous details of the ceaseless war against 
hostile tribes, with innumerable tales of thrilling incident and 
tragic horror; the Spanish account of the long struggle with the 
French; the record of the unselfish toiling of patient missionaries; 
the Spanish version of the quarrel between the United States and 
Spain ; the wild story of the Mexican revolution, so intimately con- 
nected with Magee and Long; reports from the neutral ground of 
the gathering of turbulent crowds around Nacogdoches ; and finally, 
the coming of the Anglo-American, the building up of the settle- 
ments, and the Eevolution. That these questions and many others 
are all treated is certain; how fully they are treated can be deter- 
mined only by patient investigation. 

Our historians have, as a rule, ignored this most important source 
of information. Probably not one-twentieth of these documents 
have been studied by the men who have written our books. As a 
result much that now passes for Texas history must be thrown into 
the fire when the contents of this collection are fully understood, 
and many a page of absorbing story will be added to enrich a history 
already intensely interesting, and floods of light will be let in to 
clear up much that is now doubtful and obscure. 

For the sake of greater clearness it may be well to call attention 
to a few of the documenta of this collection. I do not mean to say, 
however, that those mentioned below are more important than hun- 
dreds of others that cannot be included in the list. The document 
referred to above as bearing the date of 1734 contains 224 foolscap 
pages, and is a recital of the events to that date in the controversy 
between France and Spain over the ownership of Texas. Another 
document, dated 1754, bearing upon the same subject, contains in 
41 pages an account of the proceedings in council in Mexico on the 
subject of thS removal of the French fort of Natchitoches across the 
line which, according to Spanish claim, separated Louisiana from 
Mexico. There is a bundle of papers about Magee, most of which, 
however, appear at first glance to be accounts and business letters. 
Another package, if one can believe the endorsement on the first 
page, refers, at least incidentally, to the mysterious expedition 



— 4— 

headed by Aaron Burr. There are quite a number of census reports, 
which record not only the number of inhabitants of the place re- 
ported, but also give in detail the name, place of birth, occupation, 
property, live stock, etc., etc., of every man and woman, with the 
name, sex, and age of the children and slaves of those who had 
families. 

It is interesting to note in this connection that the population 
settled along the San Antonio river was not reported in a body, but 
as broken up into five different organizations, each of which had its 
own local officers; for example, in 1790, the presidio of San Antonio 
de Bexar and the villa of San Fernando, reported together, contained 
1151 souls; the mission of San Jose, 104; San Juan, 34; Espada, 
46 ; Concepcion, 47 ; San Antonio de Valero, 48 ; making a total of 
1420. The remaining four settlements of the province swelled the 
number to 2411, which was the total civilized population of Texas 
in that year. 

The letters relative to the events of 1832 at Anahuac, Velasco and 
Nacogdoches may and probably will necessitate the revision and even 
the rewriting of that portion of our history. Another package which 
must throw great light on the history of our Eevolution, and no 
doubt add much new matter, contains 300 letters from General Cos, 
covering the latter half of 1834 and up to November, 1835, while 
that officer was commandant general of the Eastern Internal States. 
These letters ought to reveal very fully the views, motives and plans 
of the government of Mexico relative to revolutionary Texas. The 
story of the planting of the American colonies is told in detail in the 
reports to the government from the empressarios and other officials, 
and in the copies of instructions, etc., issued by the authorities in 
San Antonio. There are scores of letters from Stephen F. Austin, 
and a great many from DeLeon and DeWitt. There are, besides, 
quantities of election returns, postoffice and revenue accounts, pri- 
vate letters, ayuntamiento records, reports of innumerable Indian 
troubles, petitions, records of trials, and many other documents of 
great interest and value. 

One more instance will serve to show how completely and even 
minutely the record of the past has been preserved in these papers. 
The episode referred to in Texas history as the Fredonian war cannot 
be fully understood without a study of the documents deposited 
here. In the first place, there is quite a quantity of matter descrip- 



the of the state of affairs on the frontier before Edwards secured his 
grant — letters, reports, petitions and trials. Then, bearing directly 
on the subject, there are some sixty letters from Alcalde Norrlss to 
the authorities in San Antonio; perhaps twice that number from 
Patricio de Torres and many from Sepulveda, Gaines, P. Ellis Bean, 
Mariano Casio, Chaplin, Benjamin Edwards and others. These give 
one a tolerably correct notion of affairs in and around Nacogdoches 
during these trying times. Then there are a great many letters from 
Austin on this subject, as well as petitions and resolutions of the 
settlers in various parts of his colony. These clearly indicate the 
attitude of that great leader and his sturdy frontiersmen toward the 
revolutionary movement. For the motives and plans of the govern- 
ment we turn to the blotters, or letter-books of the political chief, 
who was the head of tie civil government of Texas. Into these 
blotters were copied all the letters that were sent out from the chief's 
office in San Antonio. For the year 1826 alone his correspondence 
with alcaldes and other minor officials under him filled a volume of 
176 foolscap pages, a great deal of it relative to the Fredonian 
trouble. For the same year the correspondence of the same official 
with the Governor of the State of Coahuila and Texas filled 183 
pages, a large part of which was concerning this matter. In these 
reports to the Governor the political chief usually stated the sub- 
stance of letters received by him from the minor officials and others 
at Nacogdoches, and in this way lost or missing reports may in some 
degree be supplied. In addition to these ample sources of informa- 
tion there are' a large number of letters on this subject from the 
commandant general of the Eastern Internal States to the comman- 
dant of Texas, a few letters and reports from the latter officer, and 
some, though little, correspondence between the government and the 
Indian tribes around Nacogdoches. Certainly one cannot complain 
of lack of information about the Fredonian war. I mention this 
incident not because the sources are more complete, but because I 
have had occasion to work through the matter relative to these few 
years. Very probably the papers treat most of the other topics men- 
tioned above with an equal degree of completeness. 

Bexar county has been fortunate in having county clerks who 
understood and appreciated the value of these papers. In conse- 
quence they have been well preserved; very few of them, if indeed 



— 6— 

any, have suffered from moth or rat or weather, and nearly all are 
as legible now as the day they were filed. 

Strange to say, neither the State nor the county has ever mani- 
fested any interest in the collection. It is without classification of 
any kind; documents of 1835 and 1750 may be found together with- 
out the slightest connection or relation between them. If one goes 
to these papers to investigate any subject, however small, he is forced 
to look through the entire collection, which is by no mcxins a small 
undertaking. In the early part of this summer I spent nearly three 
weeks tediously turning over document after document, looking only 
at the date and address and laying aside those which I thought would 
throw light on the subject I had under consideration. And this is 
what confronts every one who wishes to make use of the material 
here collected. In the older States such negligence and indifference 
as to early history would be a State disgrace ; certainly Te.xas, whose 
history is the pride of her people, ought to have this collection 
arranged so as to be easily and conveniently used by students and 
readers. I understand that some enterprising and patriotic gentle- 
man of San Antonio once started a private subscription to have at 
least a rough classification made, but the work was too expensive for 
private funds. Even the county cannot be expected to do it. It is a 
duty incumbent on the State. 

What is necessary to make this a working collection? Money, 
scholarship and such work as can proceed only from an enthusiastic 
interest in the history of Texas. A thorough classification should 
be made, and then a good index. Some idea of what a stupendous 
undertaking this would be may be had by dividing 350,000, a moder- 
ate estimate of the number of pages in the collection, by the number 
which would represent an average day's reading. If the papers were 
in print and in the English language, it would require three or four 
years to even read them through. To master their contents and 
classify them by subjects would require a much longer time. After 
the classification is completed, the papers should be bound for greater 
safety and for convenient use. Then a page for page translation 
should be made, before Texas, proud of her history, can claim to have 
provided for the proper preservation of a very important portion of 
the sources of that history. Many other States have gone much 
further than this and have had such records printed. 

Lester G. Bugbee. 




•j 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

mil' Mil' MM in mil in mil ill ill 



014 646 193 1 



